Research Degrees: MPhil and PhD programmes

The Institute provides programmes of study for MPhil and PhD
degrees in the history, politics and sociology of Latin America, the US, Canada
and the Caribbean, according to the research specialisms of the academic staff.
Interdisciplinary research is also supported by the Institute where
students have a good grounding in one or more disciplines.

Research degrees are programmes of
supervision, available on a full- or part-time basis. Students will be
registered initially for the MPhil degree and subject to satisfactory work,
will subsequently be upgraded to that for the PhD degree.

Guidelines: the PhD shall be
a piece of work which can be researched and written within three or a maximum
of four years (full-time students) and six years (part-time students). The outcome of the degree is an
original piece of work. The maximum
word length for a PhD thesis is 100,000 words, and ideally it should not be much less than 90,000. Consult your supervisor for advice.

Professor Iwan Morgan,
Professor of United States Studies, Deputy Director of the Institute and
Director of the United States Presidency Centre. Modern US political history
(from the New Deal onwards); US political economy – historical or contemporary;
or the US presidency – past or present.

Professor Kevin J. Middlebrook,
Professor of Latin American Politics. Comparative and international political
economy (labour rights in the context of free-trade agreements and
globalization, state-labour relations in Latin America), regime change in Latin
America (political cleavages, conservative parties, democratization), US
foreign policy and US-Latin American relations.

Dr Paulo Drinot,
Senior Lecturer in Latin American History. History of Peru in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; labour history and state formation,
racism and exclusion, gender and sexuality, the social history of medicine, and
memory and historiography.

Dr Par Engstrom,
Lecturer in Human Rights of the Americas. The Inter-American Human Rights
System; judicialization of politics; transitional justice; the international
relations of the Americas; human rights, humanitarianism, and foreign policy;
theories of international relations, particularly relating to international law
and institutions; and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of human
rights. Country-specific research expertise on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and
Colombia.

Dr Tony McCulloch,
Senior Fellow in North American Studies. The concept of a ‘North Atlantic
Triangle’ between Canada, the US and the UK, both historical and contemporary;
Canadian politics and foreign policy, especially Canada-UK and Canada-US
relations; the political career of William Lyon Mackenzie King; Canada’s role
within the Organisation of American States and its relations with Latin
America; US politics and foreign policy, especially US-UK and US-Canada
relations; the political career of Franklin D Roosevelt.

Dr Kate Quinn,
Lecturer in Caribbean History. Political history of the post-independence
Anglophone Caribbean; Black Power in the Caribbean; the Caribbean left;
intellectuals and the state; culture and nationhood; intellectual movements.
Country-specific research on Cuba, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the
Eastern Caribbean.

Dr Graham Woodgate,
Principal Teaching Fellow in Environmental Sociology of the Americas.
Agroecology and food sovereignty in the Americas; Agrarian reforms in Latin
America; Globalisation and natural resource use and conservation in the
Americas; Political ecologies of the Americas; Climate change vulnerability,
mitigation and adaptation in the Americas; Ecotourism in the Americas;
Environmental social movements and direct action environmentalism in the
Americas.

Applicants should write and submit an outline of their research
proposal, giving some indication of the relevance of their chosen topic and
current state of the work in that field. This should then be forwarded, before
a formal application is submitted, to the PostGraduate Studies Officer .

An Informal interview will be arranged with the
prospective supervisor(s). In the case of an applicant living outside the UK
and being unable to attend an interview, particular attention will be paid to
the research proposal.

All students whose first language is not English must be able to
provide recent evidence that their spoken and written command of the English
language is adequate for the programmes for which they have applied.

Research programs at UCL-Institute of the Americas currently require
English level: GOOD. As an indication, this would mean that the standard minimum IELTS requirement for studying at UCL-Institute of the Americas is 7.0
with a minimum of 6.0 in each of the subtests. Learn what other qualifications and levels are recognized by UCL

London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) AHRC doctoral training
programme - applications for 2015/16 open on 1st December 2014. This scheme is
open to UK and EU applicants who meet the eligibility criteria. Applications
close on 30th January 2015. Additionally, you must have submitted an admissions
application to UCL by 16th January. Full details can be found here.

The Jeremy Bentham PhD Studentship - details for 2015/16 will be updated
shortly.

Wolfson Scholarships – Postgraduate Scholarships in
Humanities. Applications for 2015/16 are now open. This scheme is open to UK
and EU applicants who meet the eligibility criteria. To apply please submit an
online PhD admissions application including a research proposal, and also
notify the Institute Manager, Abi Espie at a.espie@ucl.ac.uk that you wish to be considered,
along with a letter from your potential supervisor confirming that they are
willing to supervise the specific project outlined by 16th January
2015. Full details of the scheme can be found here.

The
Santander Universities Awards offer a number of £5,000 scholarships for our MA and MSc
Programmes. This award is for International Students applying from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico or Uruguay.